Irs Collector Gets 2-year Term, $5,000 Fine In Bribery Case

NORFOLK — An Internal Revenue Service collector was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine for taking a $600 bribe from an undercover IRS inspector.

James M. Ruffin, 36, of Newport News, who faced a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Smith to pay $600 restitution and was barred from working for the federal government.

As a revenue officer in the IRS' Virginia Beach office, Ruffin contacted delinquent taxpayers at their homes or businesses to collect taxes. He was indicted in September for taking five bribes from three different people who sought to have delinquent tax accounts erased from IRS files.

Ruffin was filmed at a Virginia Beach condominium July 20 taking a $600 bribe from an undercover inspector posing as a taxpayer seeking to have a $10,296 tax debt erased, said James Rice, an IRS criminal investigator. In return for Ruffin's guilty plea on the $600 bribe, the U.S. Attorneys' office agreed not to prosecute other charges.

Ruffin, in an agreement with federal prosecutors, admitted to taking the $600 bribe from the IRS agent and three bribes totaling $750 from a man representing a Virginia Beach business, said assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Wiechering.

He did not admit to the fifth charge - receiving a $3,000 bribe from a person representing a cab company.

Smith chastised Ruffin for lying to probation officers and others after pleading guilty, and said that Ruffin had not accepted responsibility for his actions.

Ruffin begged forgiveness Tuesday and said he felt so guilty after taking the $600 bribe that he drove around the condominium complex for about one hour. But an IRS investigator who tailed Ruffin said he drove directly away from the area.

Smith said she found it ``shocking'' that Ruffin - who has a wife, a son and a college education, and is active in civic and church affairs - would accept bribes.

Smith said she recognized Ruffin's community service and family by giving him the shortest sentence allowed under federal guidelines. Ruffin will be on probation for three years after his release and will have to pay his fine then.

In another matter in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, Randy R. Bailey of Norfolk said he committed five bank robberies in Hampton, Suffolk and Norfolk last fall. Bailey, 35, also admitted to robbing a Suffolk bank in 1986.

Bailey pleaded guilty to robbing the First Virginia Bank of Tidewater in Norfolk Oct. 17 and robbing the Central Fidelity Bank on Mercury Boulevard in Hampton Nov. 26. He faces up to 40 years in prison when sentenced April 30.

In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to drop charges on four other bank robberies: the same Norfolk bank Sept. 29, the First American Bank in Hampton on Nov. 8 and the Suffolk branch of the First Virginia Bank of Tidewater on Nov. 26, the same day he robbed Central Fidelity in Hampton. He also robbed the same Suffolk bank in 1986.

Bailey was arrested in December at an Ocean View motel. He netted about $25,000 from the six banks. Some of the money was marked with red dye from explosive packets placed by tellers in Bailey's money bags.